Africa
This Viral Video Has Sparked a Row About Cultural Discrimination in South Africa
The clip shows a man in traditional Ndebele attire being removed from a shopping mall.
South African social media has been up in arms this week after a man in traditional Ndebele attire was asked to leave a shopping mall. The incident was captured in a video that has since gone viral.
The video shows the man, Ndebele activist Thando Mahlangu, in a dispute with the manager of the shopping mall over whether his clothing was appropriate enough for him to be there in the first place.
“I don’t condone this in my mall so please leave,” the manager can be heard saying in the video. “We have a right of admission. It is a public place, you are dressing indecently.”
Mahlangu then responds: “You are wearing Western. This is Africa, are you telling me I am not allowed to wear African in Africa?”
Saddest reality in Africa, I was subjected to inside the @Clicks_SA store at The Boulders Shopping Center. By the center manager, who said it was his shopping complex. I was told that I'm wearing inappropriate I must go & Omega risk solutions harassed me #NdebeleTwitter pic.twitter.com/klzmTQspJO
— #WeNeedAmaNdebeleOnTV (@thandomahlangu_) March 24, 2021
Speaking to Sowetan Live, Mahlangu explained that he and his partner headed to the mall to shop for toiletries and grab lunch when the incident occurred. After stepping into Clicks Pharmacy to purchase what they needed, they were immediately stopped by security.
“As soon as we walked into a Clicks store, the guard came to us and told me that I was not welcome at the mall because I was harassing customers with my attire,” Mahlangu said.
The manager of the mall then confronted him and after Mahlangu refused to leave, he called for three more security guards to escort him out. When the additional guards arrived, Mahlangu retreated.
“My partner and I hurriedly bought half of the items we were looking for. I am grateful that Clicks store did allow us to buy the items. However, I am disappointed that my girlfriend and I didn’t have lunch at the mall, especially because we were hungry, due to the harassment,” Mahlangu said.
“I left the mall heartbroken and even now as we speak, I’m still not fine emotionally,” he added.
This is just one of many in a slew of incidents over the last few years where the practice of African cultures and the donning of traditional clothing has been questioned and criticised. Even though South Africa is known as the “rainbow nation” — a nation where all cultures and races are accepted — there have been several experiences of African cultures being considered incorrect and inappropriate in mostly white spaces.
Just last year South African retail giant Woolworths came under fire after an employee was reportedly suspended from one of its Johannesburg stores for wearing a traditional Zulu bracelet. The bracelet, called isiphandla, is made of animal skin and worn after a traditional ceremony. It has to be kept on until it deteriorates and falls off over time.
Woolworths disputed the claim saying: “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our stores.”
According to The Star, the employee initially had to change departments and write a statement explaining why she had to wear isiphandla and whether she had permission to do so before she allegedly was suspended.
Another incident occurred in 2016 that eventually initiated an online protest. ENCA reporter Nontobeko Sibisi’s news segment was removed from television because she was wearing a doek (head scarf). The doek is worn in several African cultures as a symbol of respect and Sibisi had worn it in the news segment to celebrate Africa Day.
The removal of Sibisi’s segment from national news motivated South African women to take to social media and post pictures of themselves wearing a doek in solidarity using the hashtag, #RespekTheDoek.
More recently, the discussion of the erasure of African cultures came alongside allegations of racism in a number of South Africa’s private schools. Last year social media was ablaze with former (and current) students of several private schools across the country calling out their institutions for incidents of racism. A commonly shared experience that came from this is that of being unable to speak languages that are not English or Afrikaans while at school, even though South Africa boasts 11 official languages.
It was also recently highlighted in a review that several institutions prioritise the study of English and Afrikaans above other African languages.
Practicing Africa’s traditions and celebrating cultures should not come with terms and conditions in a country that celebrates being the “rainbow nation.” These incidents show an exclusion of people from their own country and plays into the idea that Western culture is superior to any other culture, an idea that has already formed deep inequalities in South Africa.
While the manager has been suspended following the incident, the frequency of moments like this highlight the need for discrimination to be dealt with at its roots.
Immediately after getting drafted, Maluach was asked: “So many people, when they think about Africa, think about strife, think about war, think about not so great things about the continent, let alone South Sudan. How much of a responsibility do you think you have in changing perceptions of what people think Africa is in terms of thinking more about the resources, thinking about the people of Africa and South Sudan, specifically?”
Maluach’s native country, South Sudan, is undergoing a humanitarian crisis. His family fled the country to a suburb of Kampala, Uganda, in search of safety and opportunity during the South Sudan crisis. He now hopes to change the narrative about the region by highlighting its good parts on the world stage.
“I think about showing them the good parts of Africa,” Maluach said at the press conference after he was drafted. “I’m thinking about showing them the great places in Africa, like Kigali, whether it’s Senegal, whether it’s the safaris in Africa, and showing them the cultures we have and the people we have, which is different from the stuff they see on TV. I just want to change the narrative, the narrative of our people and how they see my continent.”
Maluach was born in Rumbek, once an important city in South Sudan that was ravaged by the country’s civil war. The 7’2″ center’s road to success was far from easy. The nearest basketball court to his house was nearly an hour’s walk away and usually packed. Moreover, he played his first game in Crocs, not basketball shoes. But his dedication was enough to catch the eye of local coaches Wal Deng and Aketch Garang.
Through the effort that he put in, Maluach made it to the NBA Academy Africa in Saly, Senegal, then to the Duke Blue Devils, and now the Suns. He hopes the moment inspires kids on the continent.
“Living in Africa, I had the whole continent on my back. Giving hope to young kids,” he said after the Suns selected him No. 10 overall.
Maluach considers basketball a gift God gave him, and hopes to finish off his NBA career as a Hall of Famer.
After making history as Nigeria’s first female fighter pilot, Flt. Lt. Kafayat Sanni has emerged as the Best Allied Student and won the Best Assistant Commandant Paper award at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Accra, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
In a statement released on Saturday and cited by NAN, the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said the awards were presented on Friday during the College graduation ceremony which had in attendance top military personnel and dignitaries from across Africa.
Ejodame recalled how Sanni first made the news in 2019 after being decorated as the Nigerian Air Force’s first female fighter pilot following her pilot training in the U.S.
“Since then, she has flown the Alpha Jet as well as undertaken training sorties on the Super Mushshak as a prolific instructor pilot, producing and mentoring younger pilots for the NAF,” Ejodame said.
“Her outstanding performance at GAFCSC not only symbolises personal excellence and resilience but also underscores Nigeria’s growing leadership in regional defence and commitment to gender inclusion in the armed forces.
“This remarkable achievement further reflects the Nigerian Air Force’s strategic investment in human capital development under the visionary leadership of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar,” he said.
In 2017, Sanni emerged as the overall best pilot at the Nigerian Air Force’s 401 training school before she moved to the United States to train at the U.S. Aviation Leadership program.
Upon completion, Sanni returned to Nigeria, where she, alongside 12 new fighter pilots, was decorated.
As Sanni became the first female fighter pilot in the 55-year history of the Nigerian Air Force, her colleague, Tolulope Arotile, also became the Force’s first female combat helicopter pilot.
“It is a privilege for me to be winged as the first female fighter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force,” Sanni said after being decorated.
Sanni said at the time she had always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and “I was just lucky to be chosen.”
“It was also my choice. It was what I wanted to do. And I felt that everyone is not supposed to fold their arms and watch what is happening in our country.
“Everyone could always play their part. So, I did not think there was any reason for me to think that it is not possible for me to actually fly the jet because there was no female that ever flew the jet. I believe I could achieve it and I did,” she said.
She then went on to advise younger girls to “never say no to opportunities.”
“They should always strive to be the best and put in their efforts. They should never look at anything that seems to want to overpower or overshadow them. For me, you can always attempt things and if they do not work out well; fine. But at every point in time, you just need to put in your best.”
U.S. hotel chains Hilton and Marriott have announced African expansion drives to tap into the continent’s rapid tourism growth.
Rising business and leisure travel on the continent has made it increasingly attractive for multinational companies and Hilton said on Wednesday that it plans to more than triple its African portfolio to more than 160 hotels.
The company plans to enter Angola, Ghana and Benin for the first time while returning to Madagascar and Tanzania, its statement said without providing a specific time horizon for the expansion plans.
Marriott expects to add 50 properties by 2027, it said on Wednesday. Those will include entry into five new countries: Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Mauritania.
The group’s existing African portfolio encompasses nearly 150 properties and 26,000 rooms across 20 countries and 22 brands.
Airlines have also increased their African capacity.
Emirates now offers 161 weekly flights across Africa, recently adding daily services to Entebbe and Addis Ababa. United Airlines launched a direct Washington-Dakar route in May and Delta will begin a seasonal daily flight to Accra in December.
International arrivals to the continent rose 9% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, the United Nations World Tourism Organization says, 16% above the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.
That momentum is translating into economic impact. Tourism accounts for between 3% and 7% of gross domestic product in countries such as Kenya, Morocco and South Africa, and up to 15% in tourism-heavy economies such as Namibia, World Bank and national statistics show.
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